LEGACY BIBLE CHURCH > Embrace, Embody, Entrust, & Engage the Gospel

Why do you enjoy singing Christmas carols? Are you more aware of the catchy jingle or the gospel message being sung? In this message we look at the song of Mary when the angel announced she would bear a son. The rejoicing of her heart at the news of the coming of the Savior of the world is a model for the rejoicing that should mark our Christmas celebration.

We're all very familiar with the Christmas story--Joseph and Mary, the angels, the shepherds, the birth of the Son of God in a stable in Bethlehem. But let's not let our familiarity with it cause us to miss that this was a remarkable story of, among other things, a Jewish couple who trusted God to do the impossible and found courage in Him to disregard the scorn from a doubting world. In this message we see how the gospel of the Savior who has come can give us courage also to live for Him.

Jimmy Grimes, one of LBC's elders, shares God's promise to be with us as we face the fears of life.

Chapter 3 of Acts gives the first account of a miracle done by one of the apostles. Here we see Peter healing a man who was lame from birth. It's an amazing display of the power of God, but let's not make the mistake of thinking that God only worked in powerful ways through people back then, and not now. In this message we'll see that Peter was simply following the leading of God's Spirit to do the works, and speak the words, that He wanted him to speak. God can work powerfully through us when we do the same.

Just as when a baby is born, you check all of his vital signs to make sure he is healthy, there were also vital signs at the birth of the Church that showed that it had life. In this passage from Acts chapter 2 we see what those signs of life were, and ask ourselves the question, Is our faith marked by the same things?

As we look at the response of the people who were cut to the heart after hearing Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, we see what a saving response to the gospel entails.

Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost serves as a model to show what the proclaiming of the message of salvation in Jesus Christ should look like.

The day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit came to indwell the followers of Jesus to form the Church, is one of the most spectacular events recorded in Scripture. But behind the strange scene described in Acts chapter 2--fire coming down on the disciples and miraculous speaking in foreign tongues--we see that the purpose of the Spirit's coming was, and is, to empower Christians to accomplish their mission.

Immediately after Jesus' ascension into heaven, we see His followers demonstrating dependence on God as they awaited the power from the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised He would send. Their response of praying earnestly together, seeking God's will from His revealed word, and then acting in accordance with His will is a pattern that will mark these early disciples' ministry and life throughout the book of Acts.

We hope that as we study the book of Acts together we will be reminded again where the power of God is found--in the gospel. As we see how the power of the gospel was unleashed among Jesus' followers in the first-century church as the Holy Spirit powerfully worked through them, we hope also to experience fresh strength, boldness, and spiritual power through the glorious truths of the gospel.